I arrived at Kutaisi (pronounced Koo-TY-see) airport at 9am. After going through customs, I got a SIM card, took out some cash, and then booked a bus to Tbilisi (pronounced Tuh-buh-LEE-see), which would take 4 hours. I had some time to spare, so I went to the convenience store to find gluten-free snacks, but the selection was very minimal. I was finally able to find some tortilla chips with guacamole, which would hold me over until lunch. I got to Tbilisi around 2 and then requested a Bolt to my hostel. I was staying at Green House Hostel, which was the home of an older lady. Once I got settled, I left to find somewhere to have lunch. I walked to the Old Town and immediately, I noticed that I was constantly being stared at. Not stared at in the same way as I was in Sri Lanka, but this time I felt judged, especially by the women. I was wearing my active shorts and tank top, but the culture is still very conservative so most of the ladies have their shoulders and knees covered. It was over 30 degrees out though, and I didn’t think I would survive in warmer clothes. I headed to a really popular restaurant called Veliaminov. I had read reviews saying that the service was really rude (which seemed to be a common review at almost all of the restaurants in Georgia), but I decided to try it out anyway. The place was packed when I got there and even though some tables opened up, the servers told me to wait until a small table was available (there was only two of them). Other people came in and were seated before me, and I still had to wait for that smaller table. Finally, one opened up so I sat down and tried to figure out what to get. After reading some reviews, I decided to get the kharcho soup (a delicious tomato beef soup), the pork shishlek, and try my first lemonade. Lemonade comes in a huge 500mL bottle and you can choose from a variety of flavours, and I became addicted to them. The food was so delicious, and I was very happy with my first Georgian meal!
After eating, I walked around and explored for the rest of the day. I headed uphill and paid to go into the botanical gardens. I checked out the waterfall and then walked around until it closed. Then, I headed back into the Old Town and explored some more. I loved the city of Tbilisi! It had such a charming vibe to it, and the way that the city was set up was beautiful!
The city also has a bunch of sulphur baths that you can go into (the smell instantly reminded me of when my rental car got stolen in New Zealand), but I didn’t get a chance to try them out. I walked across the Bridge of Peace, hung out in Rike Park for a bit, and then figured I should get some dinner. I wasn’t too hungry since I was still full from my late lunch, but I knew that I should eat something. I walked through a street with a bunch of restaurants and I ended up going to the first one that asked me if I wanted something to eat (I usually NEVER do this, and I usually advise against doing this because when restaurants have to ask you to come in, it’s either because it’s really expensive or because the food isn’t good, or both). However, I wasn’t planning on eating much so I just sat down. They brought me some homemade wine on the house, which I’m quite grateful for because I never would have ordered wine on my own since I hate wine. And I ended up loving this wine! I actually ended up drinking a glass of wine almost every night that I was in Georgia! And I still don’t enjoy wine from any other country haha. When I looked at the menu, it WAS pretty expensive so I just decided to get a tomato & cucumber salad, which was covered in coriander (as were a lot of the Georgian dishes). The salad wasn’t too bad, but it also wasn’t the best tomato & cucumber salad (I often ordered that salad for many of my meals). Right when I finished dinner, it started to rain so I went to the street and requested a Bolt to take me back to the hostel. When I got there, the hostel owner brought out a bottle of chacha (a 60%+ Georgian brandy) and poured each of us a shot. There was a guy from Australia, a guy from New Zealand, a guy from the Netherlands, and a girl from France. We stayed up and chatted but I was getting pretty exhausted since I had been travelling all night, so I had a shower and went to bed.
The next day, I got up and asked the hostel owner if I could do some laundry. It was still before checkout time, so I was able to finish my laundry and hang it to dry before she had to start washing the sheets. I had my tattoo appointment that day for 1:30 so I wanted to get food beforehand. I decided to go to a place called Salobie Bia, which is another popular place. I showed up right when it opened and I was the first one there. This time, I tried the chicken soup, called Chikhirtma. I also got the tomato salad (which was the best one I had), and ordered the homemade lemonade, which only came as a full litre. Luckily, my tattoo artist messaged and asked if I could come a half hour later, so I was able to take my time at lunch. The food was so good! But after searching the internet, I realised that the soup I got typically adds flour to it, so I knew to avoid that one in the future!
I walked to the tattoo parlour, and my tattoo artist still wasn’t there. I had to wait about 20 minutes, and felt more and more nervous as I waited. She messaged and apologised, saying traffic was bad, and then she sent me three designs to choose from. When she got there, she printed out the design that I chose in different sizes. I was expecting it to take up my entire arm but when she showed me the print-outs, they were so small and delicate, which was exactly what I had wanted! She put the design on my arm and I’d stand in front of the mirror to see how it looked. She ended up reapplying the design three times until we got it exactly where we wanted, and then we started. She said it would take an hour and a half but the time seemed to go by really fast, and I don’t think it actually ended up taking that long. And it hardly even hurt! For most of the time, I was completely fine (thank goodness for my high pain threshold!). The tattoo was only 220 GEL ($111CAD), which was so cheap compared to other countries. She put on a protective adhesive (which was new to me, as I didn’t get it for my first two tattoos), and told me to keep it on for 3-5 days. BUT if it started to peel and if water got under it, I had to take it off completely and start the moisturising process, which meant moisturising it 5-7 times per day. I was so paranoid during the entire time the adhesive was on because it kept moving around when I sweat, and I wasn’t sure if it was on properly.
After my tattoo, I went to McDonald’s to get a sundae and fries. The Georgia order station at McDonald’s has an ‘i’ beside every item and if you click on it, it’ll tell you the allergens. How cool! Why doesn’t every country have this?! I got my table number and sat down. I waited for about ten minutes and then realised that the table beside me had gotten their food and they sat down after me. When I saw one of the workers, I told them that I had been waiting 15 minutes and still hadn’t gotten my food, but she said that there were a lot of orders. So I kept waiting but after 25 minutes, I finally went up to the counter and I could SEE my order blinking red with a 25 beside it. I waved over the manager and said that I still hadn’t gotten my order, and she got it within 30 seconds and apologised. After I had my snack, I walked around a different area of Tbilisi, stopped at Fabrika Tbilisi, which was basically an outdoor food court but was super busy, so I headed back to my hostel to take my clothes off of the line.
I got back to see that everything was already taken off and placed on my bed, so I put everything back in my bag and then headed back out to find dinner. This time, I went to a small home cooked place called Nikolozi. It was meant to close in a half hour and looked pretty quiet, so I wasn’t even sure if I should go inside. However, someone came out and said that I should go in because it was good. The lady handed me a piece of paper and a pen, and I had to write down my own order. The whole menu was hand-printed, and it was only two older ladies working there. I ordered the Ojakhuri, which is just a simple pork and potato dish, but the flavours were amazing! After dinner, I walked back to my hostel and went to bed.
The next day, I was heading to Stepantsminda (also called Kazbegi). I decided to get some breakfast first, since it would be about a six-hour ride. I walked to a place called Blamanje, which was actually really hard to find since it ended up being on the second floor of a building in a food court. I had walked around the entire mall until I realised it was upstairs. It was a fancier and more expensive place, but it was rated really high and had gluten-free options. I don’t know why, but I got in the habit of ordering two things at almost every meal in Georgia. I think it’s because usually, families will order a bunch of dishes and share them. Since there was only one of me, I’d have to order at least two dishes to get both meat and vegetables. This time, I ordered the fried eggs and the rice porridge. They were both amazing! And rather than just serve fried eggs, they also had tomatoes on top. The rice porridge reminded me of mango sticky rice in Thailand, and I’m definitely going to have to start making it at home.
I went back to my hostel, got my bag, and requested a Bolt to the bus terminal. The Bolt driver was so nice and actually got out of his car to ask where I had to go. I had to walk down a street and to another area to take a marshrutka. When I got there, the driver asked me to pay and then I sat down. There was a couple sitting beside me and they asked the driver when we’d be leaving. English-speaking is quite minimal in Georgia, especially with older people since their second language is usually Russian, so he pointed to the 1 on his watch. It was just before 12 – we wouldn’t be leaving for over an hour. The couple said that they’ve been waiting too long and that they wanted their money back. I asked how long they’d been waiting and they said an hour. The van was parked in the direct sun, so it got so hot! I decided to go get some water and use the bathroom. I paid for the bathroom and then turned around the corner to go inside and.. it was a squat toilet. Nooooooo. I had managed to avoid so many squat toilets in Asia and when I got to Europe, I was finally forced to use one on this trip. I went back to the van to wait. I think they were waiting for the van to fill up, but it never filled up completely so we finally left at 1. But I’ll save that for the next post. Love always
Prairie Girl Abroad 